Genesis 29-31 is filled with puns. In fact, you could say that the Bible is filled with dad jokes. The problem is that many of these puns are lost in the translation of the text. Scott Noegel addresses some of these puns in the narrative found in Genesis 29-31 in the following article. See: Jacob and Laban’s Double Talk

He writes, “The web of puns and deceptive speech serve a similar literary function. It is through their (Jacob and Laban’s) deceptive words that the characters convey their deceptive intentions and we, as readers, are tricked along with the victims. This enables us to empathize with the deceived and to define the characters’ behavior. Yet, the literary device also belies a theological agenda. Since the narrator/redactor also engages in punning, we must see the word play phenomenon as an authorial tool to force the reader’s participation in the story, a narrative that can be clarified only as it unfolds. All along he reminds his readers through word plays that God repays both deception and acts of kindness in kind. 1